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2015-09-19 - Meditation 101
Waiting atop a large abandoned office building in Bludhaven is a dark figure. Not dark because of the outfit, though that wouldn't be out of character for this particular person. In this case, it's just because it's dark. She tends to get out at night, and when she was contacted for this kind of thing...well, she told them where and when and they can damn well adapt. So Cassandra Cain is on top of a building wearing a blue tank top and loose black capri pants, and has no shoes on. Waiting without a mask. Sometimes heroes get called for odd things. This is no exception. It really wasnt her fault. That's what was going on in Kara's mind as she flew to Bludhaven. Abomination was the one to attack her. She even pulled her punches a lot, and only hit him a couple of times. But you punch a supervillain into and through a building ONCE, and the building comes down. Even if it's an abandonned building.... and everyone blames you for being reckless. She made sure the building was abandonned before she punched him into it, but does she get credit for that? Nooooooooooooo. So for some reason, they figured it's because Kara has anger issues. But honestly, if some green gamma powered jerk who keeps calling you out for fights because he just can't handle that a girl is stronger than him ... well... calls you out again, what is she supposed to do? After all, he was threatening to kill people if she didnt come out to fight him and the other gamma-powered freaks he brought with him. And on that note, she didn't break ANY buildings while taking out the gamma freaks. Seriously. Not fair. Anyway, it was Diana who suggested that maybe she could use a little focus to think through how to better handle these situations with the whole... impatience thing. But somehow Kal thought that means 'lets have Kara learn meditation!' Rather than 'let her go to Themyscira again to learn more battle training. That would have at least been fun - she did like it last time she was there. Probably could take on Artemis better now. No, instead she was flying to Bludhaven to learn boring meditation. She didnt like it when she was on Krypton and they would try to teach her Torquasm Vo instead of the much more fun Klukor. She didnt expect she'd like it on Earth either. Kara lands on the building. "Oh... Cassandra. Hey! For some reason I thought that Batman was going to..." Cassandra watches Kara land on the roof. She nods, holding out her right hand in a classic 'stop', palm forward, and says, "Wait. One more." Then she folds her arms, continuing to look out into the night. Brooding. Darkness. Ah, classic. "It's my own fault." That's the thought going through Bobby's mind. He huffs to himself, "You really never learn, do you?" One little distraction. One little oversight. one distraction when he was supposed to be paying attetion. And now Beast was going to be spending the next week repairing one wall of the Danger Room. Even if there was a bit of glee in Hank's eye at an opportunity to install some upgrades. Bobby's arrival is a lot less spectacular than Kara's. At least, his arrival to the rooftop. His arrival in Bludhaveninvolved a cloaked Blackbird landing int he park. His arrival on the rooftop just involves the stairs. The door to the rooftop opens and Bobby steps out. He's wearing work out clothes, a loose t and basketball shorts. Cool weather isn't going to be an issue. He's got a yoga mat rolled uder one arm. He walks out onto the roof and jokes, ""Had to make a stop on tthe way here. Somehow when I'm flying the Blackbird always has icing issues.." Kara Zor-El watches Cassandra do the brooding thing with the arms crossed. Takes a couple of minutes. Kara taps her foot a little, starting to wish she brought one of those PS Vita things that Leah had at the house. Maybe she could go and.... And that's when Bobby comes up the stairs and onto the roof. "Oh! Wait.. Bobby's the 'one more?' Batman in with the X-Men or something?" She was so out of the loop. Maybe it was through Oracle or something. Didnt Oracle have some sort of in with Xavier? Kara shakes her head a bit. "Hey Bobby!" She looks at Cassandra. "Not sure you two have met. Bobby... Cassandra. Cassandra... Bobby?" Bobby is met by two women. Supergirl, doing whatever Supergirl is doing, and an asian girl who raises an eyebrow high enough to do Leonard Nimoy credit. Apparently her name is Cassandra,, and she's familiar with...well, she's the one that both Supers were sent to for this. Whatever this is. And giving both of the powered ones a lopsided and distinctly sarcastic grin, Cassandra waves to the rooftop with her left hand indicating it with grace, if not exactly politeness. Then she finds a place herself and sits cross-legged on the rooftop waiting for the pair to join her. Not the chatty type. Kara Zor-El pauses. "Oh.. okay so um... so we're doing this meditation thing right here then?" she asks confusedly. "Okay then." she says, nodding to herself and sits down on the rooftop to the left and behind Cassandra. "So... yeah?" Bobby rolls out his mat and sits himself down. He speaks as he's doing it, "Oh, hey Kara. Didn't realize you'd be here for this. The Professor thought it'd be good for me to work on focus a long way away from anyone telepathic. Apparently, I'm "noisy", and we got a kid who's a strong receviver new with the fresh school year." He gets himself into a similar position to Cassandra's, though not quite as gracefully. Sitting on the roof, Cassandra lets her knees lay flat almost idly. She says, "Comfortable. Does not matter how. Must relax." She looks at the two, waiting for them to stop fidgeting (mostly) and makes a mental call to address what they're thinking before starting. Taking a few seconds to gather her thoughts, she says, "This will not help you yet. Meditation while rest...ing is not...practical." Her eyes flicker to something moving in the distance, then back just as quickly. "Must start by form...ing the...habit. To be able to clear the mind in combat...first learn to clear the mind at all. So. Breathe." Her throat actually hurting from the abnormally high amount of speaking, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly, taking over a minute to just let the breath leave her body. Bobby tries. He really does. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. It streams out in a fog that looks like breath in midwinter. Except for the fact that it's in the high 70s on the rooftop. "Clear my mind, clear my mind. Not much there to start with, shouldn't be hard." He shifts a bit, then shifts again, then moves so his legs are straight. Then bends his knees. Then, no more than twenty seconds later, there's a crackling sound as ice forms into a deck chair supporting him, the Yoga mat fortgotten. Kara Zor-El looks over at Bobby, then says to him. "Punched Abomination into a building, then the building collapsed on him." Not that anyone asked why she was here. "So apparently I have .... anger issues." she says, making air quotes before Cassandra starts talking. She listens for a while, then is quiet. For about two seconds. Then raises her hand. "Technically I don't have to breathe but..." She stops when Cassandra closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, then murmurs to herself, "okay... breathing." She mimics what Cassandra is doing, closing her eyes, breathing in and out, then peeks to her left where Bobby is ice-creating a deck chair. Bobby settles back onto the deck chair and lets out a sigh. At least he's comfortable. He mutters, "OK, focus, clear my mind..." He tries hard, focusing to clear his mind. He falls back on the ways he already knows to focus. Because he does know how to focus, and focus in depth. So he holds an image of perfect clarity in his mind. And winds up encased in a rough dome of perfectly clear ice. It actually takes him a few moments to realize what he did. It's the air getting stuffy that makes him open his eyes. He yelps, then puts out his hands and shoves, cracking the dome like an egg and letting it fall in two pieces. Cassandra opens her eyes and looks at the pair of students she's been given the honour of teaching. She realizes that it's going about as well as could be expected and snaps her fingers to see if she can't get their attention. Anything's possible. And considering the ice dome and all, she counts herself lucky. "When you are...finished..." she says, though her voice doesn't sound upset or reproachful. As if she knows it was an accident. Bobby scratches his head with one hand and gives a sheepish grin, "Uh, sorry, sorry. You said clear so I was picturing clear, and trying to push everything out and, uh, I got a little too literal, I guess. For me this kind of stuff was always part of training my powers, ya know? Clarity and focus, that's exactly what I focus on to keep ice form from looking like Frosty the Snow man." Kara Zor-El pats her lap a little as she tries to meditate and relax. Hard to do when you can hear everything going around in the Eastern Seaboard and she didnt really like meditating. She again peeks one eye open. Oh... someone's watching Star Trek a few blocks away in their house. Wait they made a remake of Star Trek, and ot The Next Generation? She'd have to tell Dedrick about this. Wait no.... gotta meditate. Med-i-taaate, Kara. Meditate. Kara keeps trying the meditation thing a few more minutes. Okay..... 26 more seconds actually. She looks back at whatever Bobby's doing, then fidgets some more, and 'meditates' more. New Spock is sorta cute. Hmm. Maybe Dedrick could dress up with pointy ears at next Halloween? No. Kara. MEDITATE. She listens as Bobby starts talking about Frosty the Snowman. Wonder who that is. Probably another X-Man. She should probably ask. No, wait... she needs to meditate. "I'm so meditating. So how long are we supposed to be meditating until we get in the zone? Like that zen thing?" Wait she said that out loud, didnt she... Cassandra wonders idly where Americans get these ideas. Too much tv probably. "I did not mention clarity...or focus. Or...zen. Breathe. That is..all." She wonders if she needs to be more clear. "Think about...the breath. Feel it go in, feel it in your..." she pauses, then points to her belly. "Here. Feel it go out. Con...centrate on the..breath." Pointing to the deck chair, Cassandra adds to Bobby, That...limits your lungs." Then she points at Kara, and says, "Point of this is keep ...brain...on one topic." She narrows her eyes a little, then settles to breathe again. In, out. Long, deep breaths. Thoughts focused upon one, chosen thing. Bobby makes a gesture with his hand and his chair bursts into a swirl of snowflakes that spreads out and melts into a mist that dissipates like a large puff of smoke. He resettles himself cross leged and straightens his spine. He's going to at least try. He breathes in slowly, and then out. In, and out. In and... Bobby's mouth quirks up into a half-smile completely of its own accord. HIs mind is so, so not on breathing any more. Kara Zor-El totally knew how to concentrate on breathing. She could create a hurricane with her breath if she wanted to. She nods though. "mm hmm..." she responds. Then concentrates on her breathing. In and out. In and out. In and 'your money right now!' out. In and 'okay just don't hurt us!' out. In and '*blue blur passes by them, knocking the mugger into the wall and leaving a very confused couple in the alley* out.' Yeah no one noticed that, Kara. Definitely not. Well except for the gust of wind that happened when Kara supersped out of there to stop that mugging 8 blocks away. Nope. Just breathing! In and out. From afar, Bobby grins, "The player is familiar with this sort of exercise, actually. The character, on the other hand, is an irreverant man-child whose sense of humor never got out of high school." Cassandra's voice drifts out, timed with her breathing. Eyes closed, she directs a portion of her mind to words, which takes more of her brain than she's normally used to giving to heavy combat. But it comes out like this. "Breathe. Feel it in your...belly. Your mind...will not want to...do this." Breathing in, she takes a good long time to fill her lungs, then speaks out slowly once more. "This is...normal. You train...in time it will come. For now...try. Think of...the breath. When the mind wanders...notice and...do not be upset." Another breath in, and she seems done speaking for now. And her mind places itself into a position of calm. Her hands lay palms-up on her knees, eyes closed, and there is almost a wave of ripples about her body that are actually visible to the naked eye. What it is...is not readily definable. But something happened. The sound of that stilted speech snaps Bobby's mind back to what he is supposed to be focusing on. Breathe. Breathe. He's relaxing, if nothing else. This already might qualify for the longest time he's been awake and immobile in years. Breathe. Wonder how many students will need a math tutor this year? Breathe Breathe... Whatever that "something" that just happened is, it makes Bobby jump a bit and open his eyes. Kara Zor-El peeks again after another 30-something seconds of oh Rao so boring meditation. Maybe Kal wanted her to do this as punishment? In and out. This sort of really did remind her of Torquasm Vo training that her mother tried to get her involved in when she was 6. It's almost as boring. Klukor was so much more active. What was the point of the whole focusing on one thing anyway? She focused a hella lot on less than what she was taking in information-wise. She'd go crazy if she wasnt able to do that. In and out. Sure she might not be as fine tuned on using her powers as Kal is, but that doesnt mean she isnt focused. In and out. She just doesnt focus every single itty witty bit of her mind on one thing. But she can compartmentalize, right? Heck she does that all the time. In and out. Besides, this is all because she punched stupid Abomination into a stupid building and the stupid building collapsed on his stupid head. She should have punched that green idiot into orbit, but no. Probably would have hit a satellite then they'd complain to her about the same thing. In and out. Wonder what Dedrick is doing right now. In and out. Probably not meditating. That's for sure. In and out. Maybe after this is done, she could go pick up a pizza for Leah if she's home. Bludhaven has that great pizza place on 5th and Grady Street where they put the cheese on first, then the sauce. In and out. Bank robbery in progress *superspeeds off, one second the robbers are holding guns on the hostages, the next their guns are gone and the police are running inside to arrest the unarmed perps* Another gust of wind as Kara left and came back. In and out. Cassandra's voice drifts out of her body as if disconnected from her self. Her eyes remain closed, posture straight, and she says, "Direct your mind gently back to where it should be," with no hint of hesitation. She seems to have had an effect on her ability to speak! She seems not only happy, but completely unaware of what her students are doing. No reaction of any type when Kara speeds off and back, nor when Bobby's eyes snap open, but that undefinable something about her seems to slowly fade away and leaves her simply sitting on a roof, talking about breathing. "When you can learn to control your entire self, you can do...anything." For some reason, right now, it seems like she means something much more than 'oh, let's learn to meditate. It's feng shui and modern.' But she's still not looking, giving her students a little longer to struggle with this, the first exercise. Because she knows. It's hard. Maybe it was because Kara's mind wasnt a human mind. Or maybe it's because compared to Cassandra, Kara was a lot more flighty - no pun intended. But it was all sounding like gobbledygook to her. Flash once told her that the whole world was boring because it always felt like everything was going at a snails pace for him. She could totally relate right now. She looks back at the window where the person was watching Star Trek. Aw man.... they were just making out now instead. She looks elsewhere, then notices Bobby's being startled. "What?" she whispers to him. Breathe in. Breathe Out. Breathe in as the wind lurches to the left at Kara's departure. Breathe out as it lurches back. Bobby's hair looks like it can't make up its mind where it should be pointing. Kara's soft word to him gets a sideways glance, a little smile, and a tiny nod towards Cassandra. He speaks in the softest whisper he can manage, trusting to Kara's hearing. "I thought she didn't have powers?" Kara Zor-El whispers back. "It's all a little hazy with her. She doesnt have a meta gene but she's with the bat family so... yeah. They do impossible stuff every few days. Anyway... whacha mean?" She goes back to breathing in and out. Then peeks an eye open to see what Bobby was talking about in the first place. The asian girl's eyes drift open. Nothing special about her, save for the sudden conviction that she knows everything that both of them have been doing for the last fifteen minutes. Just from the look on her face. She has this little smile. And at that moment, something she's been expecting happens. Comes of knowing the city like the back of your batcave. Two gang members turn a corner and come upon a group of their natural enemies and the expected happens. This is something that Cassandra has been expecting, planning for, and neither of her students know was timed to the second. But it probably looks kind of mystical when Cassandra raises her left hand just a little and raises a finger about two seconds before gunfire breaks out a few blocks away. And she says, "Go ahead, then," as if completely aware that they've been praying for a chance to DO SOMETHING. She totally did, but they don't need to know that. Just to start thinking that their teacher isn't a complete idiot after all. And even if the session was a flop, maybe...they might come back. Sometimes the entirely human can do things that seem superhuman. Pretty much the entire basis of every circus act, and a whole lot of viral videos of free running. Bobby may have the attention span of a 10 year old on a sugar high, but he -does- spend a whole lot of time training. If only because of respect for the two people most prone to tell him to. The leap that takes him from cross legged to standing is one of those thigns that doesn't seem like it should work, but does. He snaps into a run and takes a flying leap off the building worthy of a member of the bat family. Of course, it's unlikely that any member of the bat family ever did so wearing blue basketball shorts and a beatup t-shirt. And it's certain that none of them ever crystalized into ice in midair, and turned their leap into a mad run down a slick path of ice. He's going for maximum speed, hoping to get there before Kara's done with them. Kara Zor-El smiles a little embarrassedly. "Thanks. Sorry. It was..." She thinks. "Yeah it was really...." She thinks some more. "See you next time okay?" She looks at Bobby. "Gonna give him a little head start." Then after he's about halfway there, she takes off in a blur. Cassandra Cain smiles as she watches them leave. She isn't wondering what they'll do. Tonight was going to be the beginning of a particularly bloody gang war that Batman expected to take out hundreds of innocents, and she'd been telling him to come help for a long time. They'd been actually fighting over it, but he kept saying that he had it all in hand. She couldn't see how, and yet he had this confidence that everything would work out. When she arrived tonight to what she thought was a collossal waste of time, she was downright upset at being ordered to 'teach students' on this of all nights. Halfway through the meditation, she realized. Batman invited two students and forced them to get used to the city and made her get them intensely bored. He knew. Son of a bitch knew, manipulated the situation to get them here, and left her to figure it out. Well, I shouldn't waste the opportunity, she thinks. And the yoga instructor bounces off to join them. This looks to be a fun night after all.